WTC Final 2023: Shardul Thakur says title clash against Australia a 'once in a lifetime opportunity'

Team India’s bowling all-rounder Shardul Thakur is looking to make it count should he be named in the playing XI to face Australia in the World Test Championship (WTC) final that starts in London from Wednesday.

Shardul was part of India’s squad that faced New Zealand in the WTC 2021 final, but failed to feature in the playing XI at the time.

Once again, Shardul is not a certainty to feature in the marquee clash against the Aussies at The Oval, should India go ahead with a batting-friendly lineup.

“I feel that ICC event, finals especially, you don’t get to play them everywhere each and every year, so it’s, for a few players or somebody like me, a once-in-a-lifetime moment,” Shardul was quoted as saying by the ICC.

“All that I want is to make it count. It’s always a special moment when you’re representing your country — especially India, when there’s a billion people out there who dream of playing for the nation and only the best 15 have been chosen to represent the country,” added the 31-year-old.

When India played England at The Oval in 2021, Thakur struck twin fifties, and claimed three wickets as India clinched a 157-run win.

Thakur termed the WTC final as a ‘fresh start’. “It’s always good to remember your previous performances on a particular ground, but every game is a fresh start. It’s different opponents this time around, but yeah it’s always good to take motivation from what you’ve done in the past on a particular ground,” said the Mumbai cricketer.

Thakur added that the batters should look to take advantage when the sun is out in England.

“I think England is challenging because the weather here is a bit funny. When the sun’s out, it is good for batting, when it’s overcast, it’s good for bowling, so the toss hardly matters, it’s all about the cloud cover,” said Thakur.

“Obviously, the pitch also plays an important role, but we’ve seen in the past that whenever there’s cloud cover, the ball suddenly starts swinging and you can’t really predict how much the ball is going to move, so that’s one of the biggest challenges that a batter faces,” he added.

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